Parkite Jason Hendrickson sets new course record for Paddle Pedal Paddle at Jordanelle

Jason Hendrickson with his bike after setting a new course record in the Paddle Pedal Paddle paddleboarding contest on the Jordanelle Reservoir. Hendrickson had been paddleboarding for six weeks.

On Saturday, Park City SUP held its annual Paddle Pedal Paddle race at the Rock Cliff area of the Jordanelle Reservoir. The full version of the race requires athletes to travel 5 miles on a paddleboard, 10 miles on a mountain bike, then paddle another 5 miles. Parkite Jason Hendrickson won the overall event by crossing the finish line in 3 hours, 11 minutes and 40 seconds, setting a new course record.

The previous record stood at 3 hours and 13 minutes, and was set by race organizer Trent Hickman, who officiated the race on Saturday.

"It feels amazing, it really does," Hickman said as he watched his record fall."My desire is to see someone do sub (three hours), and Jason just pushed the whole event in that direction."

It was Hendrickson's first time racing the Paddle Pedal Paddle, which has been running for eight years. He competed against a field of five people in the full-course event.

Though Hendrickson is an avid cyclist and a competitive cyclocross racer, he had only been paddleboarding for six weeks.

"I figured I would come out and try and fake my way through a stand-up paddle, and at least get a good bike workout in," he said. To prepare, Hendrickson said he watched many YouTube videos on paddle boarding, and though Hickman said the newcomer's paddle boarding technique was good, it was his cycling experience that put him in a position to set a new record.

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"We (timed) him at 49 minutes for 10 miles of mountain bike riding, for (well over 1,000 feet) of vertical change – so a lot of up and down," Hickman remarked.

Hendrickson also set a new record for the cycling leg, which traverses mountain biking trail that runs near the race's launch point at the Rock Cliff boat ramp. The cyclocross rider said he had a leg up over his competition because he frequently rides the trail for training.

"It's not easy, but I know how to do it so I can go hard without killing myself on it," he said. "The paddle was not like that. The paddle felt like a fight the whole way."

There was a steady crosswind that forced racers to paddle continuously on one side as they entered the final stretch of the race, which was where Hendrickson realized he was in contention for the course record.

"I (thought) it's going to be close, so I tried to hammer it at the end," he said. "I wasn't even thinking about (setting a record) the rest of the time – the rest of the time I was thinking, 'Oh my god, this sucks. Just keep moving.'"